


Make it Fly

by AlphaStarwell



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Aliens, Delta Quadrant, First Contact
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 19:05:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15177308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlphaStarwell/pseuds/AlphaStarwell
Summary: Voyager encounters a strange alien race that has the technology to launch them closer to home... if they can only answer an odd riddle.





	1. Chapter 1

The mission of the Starship Voyager had been to get home, ever since she and her crew had been pulled far away from the Alpha Quadrant by the Caretaker's array.

 

They were often willing to lend a hand to anyone they could, so long as it didn't drain too many of their own resources, disobey the Prime Directive (too much), or throw them into a situation that might have unforseen consequences, political or otherwise.

 

Voyager was still a Starfleet ship, through and through, although they had been forced to improvise at times... as any ship stranded in a strange, uncharted quadrant would have to. Sometimes, when it came between going hungry (or getting a necessary material or component to repair part of the ship), they'd been forced to trade replicators, occasional personal effects that some aliens found interesting, etc. One time, they'd even been forced to share a single bio-neural gel-pack, including instructions on how to make/grow one.

 

However, in all of their time together, the Voyager crew had never encountered something like it would be about to encounter. They would soon be offered the opportunity to shave two thousand light years off their journey, with nothing asked from them in return except something that would test how they used their own technology, and whether or not they could correctly interpret an alien riddle.

 

Voyager stumbled across a new star system, one that was highly unusual because, not only did the planets safely orbit within a binary set of stars, but every planet that inhabited them was fully populated. Further scans indicated that all of the planets were probably terraformed to suit the needs of those who existed on the origin planet, although it was extremely difficult to tell which one that might be.

 

It also seemed that the planets could individually monitor their own orbits through the use of giant, powerful engines that had been constructed and installed deep inside each planet. That way, if any of the eight planets started to get too close to one of their suns, they could readjust their orbit to prevent being burned alive or falling into the star entirely.

 

Sensors also indicated that, although these aliens had obviously completely spread over their own solar system, they had left other, nearby solar systems alone. There was no sign that they had attempted to terraform or colonize anywhere else, not even a planet in a nearby system that had a planet very much like theirs.

 

Everyone on Voyager's bridge had to admit that it was very impressive, especially since the planets below seemed to be covered in vast, beautiful forests in some areas, with highly sophisticated and advanced cities in other areas. It was like the perfect balance of technology and evolution, with enough nature for the wildlife to have it's home... and for any potential nature-lovers to enjoy themselves. A couple of scans revealed that there were a few campsites here and there in the forests, though they had very little technology with them. Perhaps it was prohibited in the forest.

 

Chakotay found himself wishing that Earth had followed a similar example long ago. Even after World War III happened, several species of animals had gone instinct, and even many kinds of trees had ceased to exist. Thankfully, modern day technology allowed them to experiment with new breeds, and through use of cloning they'd even managed to bring some animals and plants back into existence, but it was a shame they were allowed to die out in the first place.

 

Either way, there were no ships in orbit around any of the planets, nor any fleets patrolling, at least none that Tuvok or Harry Kim could detect. There were communications flowing between the planets, but it used an encrypted, alien code that they couldn't hope to crack without knowing more about the aliens themselves or their language.

 

It seemed that the main defense that the planets used were planetary shields, which also helped preserve the atmosphere if they had to use the planetary engines to move or adjust their worlds. These shields freely permitted scanning, yet oblitherated anything that came into contact with them, such as stray meteroid dust or the occasional asteroid.

 

Voyager's crew had seen what happened when one asteroid got too close, and while Janeway wasn't sure how differently a shielded ship would be effected, she definitely didn't want to test that.

 

They also knew that the aliens knew they were there. Voyager had been scanned by the planet it currently orbited, as well as the next one it was closest to. A flurry of heavy communication between the planets after that might have suggested that they were sharing the intel from their data with all of the other planets within their system.

 

Since no aggressive moves were being made, and there were no threats to make Voyager leave or stay away, Janeway had to take it as a good sign so far... even if the aliens still weren't answering their hails. Besides, the fact that the aliens had built their shields to openly allow passing vessels to scan them, and they seemed to become animated themselves when they scanned a new arrival... perhaps that was their way of being inviting curiousity as they satisfied their own?

 

Then again, Janeway also knew that it was dangerous to speculate without knowing anything about these people. The only thing she could do was make little guesses and theorize. Yet something in her gut told her that her hunch was right.

 

Seven of Nine concluded that the Borg Collective had encountered this species before, (Species 9971) but failed to assimilate any of them, because they'd only encountered them once and they self-destructed their vessel once the Borg Cube had captured them... which had taken the entire Borg Cube with it. There had barely been enough data left over in the debris to form tentative analysises.

 

Janeway wasn't in the habit of referring to species' by the designations that Borg gave them. But in cases where they hadn't learned an alien race's own name for themselves yet, she had a small tendency of holding onto a the first "name" she heard for a new species, merely so she could have something to mentally refer to it as. It was easier to give someone an identity, to make it more real, more tangible, if it had some kind of name to refer to it by.

 

Even if it was a silent, unspoken reference before for the comfort of her own mind.

 

When all was said and done, Voyager might have simply moved on and respected the fact that it seemed like these aliens didn't want to talk to them or answer their hails, when they noticed something. Apparently, these aliens did have space ships, and they only time they left the planet's surface was to approach a specific sphere.

 

Voyager's initial scans lead the crew to believe that the sphere in orbit of the planet closest to the one they currently orbited had merely been a moon with heavy additions and modifications, but it turned out that it was more than that. In fact, it seemed that it wasn't a natural phenomenon at all. It was a very powerful machine.

 

It was obviously constructed to simulate a moon, and it even had its own world engines installed just as the planets did, but it was so much more than just another habitable space. It seemed that it had the capacity to allow ships to enter, each ship would give a set of coordinates, and they would be launched from anywhere between a hundred lightyears to a thousand in just a few seconds.

 

That's when more theories and speculations began to fly amidst the bridge crew. Not only did it get everyone excited about the prospect of shaving a few years off their journey home, but it also got their minds to wonder a bit more. Where were they going? Could the vessels be pulled back somehow when they were finished doing whatever they were doing, or did they stay out there?

 

Their questions seemed to be answered when it turned out the moon was also used as a receiver; within the next five hours, several of the ships that were sent out were also sent back. This suggested that more of these constructs were out there, possibly a network of them.

 

The crew began to redouble their efforts of trying to communicate with the aliens, yet there was still no response. However, when Janeway clearly stated on an open channel that they hoped they could use the construct to get them closer to home, there was another heavy burst of communication between all of the planets, and Voyager was scanned again... this time by a more thorough and mildly intrusive scan.

 

"Captain," Tuvok said in mild alarm, "they are attempting to access our computer's database."

 

"Stop them," Janeway said, "and raise shields." Perhaps that was a bit overkill, since thus far, the aliens had not made any aggressive moves, but it was clear to show that the Starfleet crew didn't appreciate having their belongings pried into.

 

"I have managed to prevent them from further access," Tuvok said, "however, it seems they already copied a small portion of our database."

 

"What were they after, specifically?" Chakotay asked.

 

"It seems they were going after our cultural and linguistics databases, as well as some information regarding Earth," Tuvok said. "They have stopped scanning, but our Borg sensors show that they performed a thorough, submolecular scan on our entire ship."

 

"If they were that curious about us," Tom Paris quipped dryly, "they could have always asked to come over for coffee and talk to us."

 

"We are being hailed," Tuvok said as a control on his terminal chimed.

 

"Maybe that's an invitation for coffee now," Janeway's tone was somewhere between dry and amused. "Open a channel."

 

The aliens from the planet Voyager currently orbited were the ones transmitting, audio-only. However, when they spoke, it was a series of staticky sounds and high-pitched noises that the Universal Translator couldn't even begin to translate.

 

"This is Captain Janeway," the Captain of Voyager said again. Though she was fairly certain they were already familiar with her voice by now, if nothing else. "Our universal translator is having a difficult time interpreting your language. We mean you no harm, we just want to know if you would let us use the machine you use to send your ships into space to help us get closer to home."

 

There was another burst of communication, just as annoying and incomprehendable as before.

 

"Can you clear that up?" Janeway asked, looking to Harry Kim.

 

"I'm trying," Kim said in mild annoyance.

 

"See if you can enhance the Universal Translator," Janeway said. "We can't hope to get any help from these people if we can't communicate with them," she added, more to herself than anyone else.

 

Over time, they managed to syncronize their receivers with the aliens to clear up the static and other inhibitating sounds, and some time after that, they even managed to run enough of their language through the Universal Translator for it to finally translate at least a fair portion of their spoken words.

 

Yet the Voyager crew still couldn't make heads or tales out of what the aliens were trying to say. And, unfortunately, the aliens didn't seem inclined to share two-way visual communication. Though somehow, Janeway got the impression that they were just shy in their own way.

 

It seemed that the biggest problem they were having, regarding their inability to communicate, was that the aliens had a way of using words in a way that made sense to themselves, but it didn't make any sense to outsiders who were completely unfamiliar with their way of life, or references to their culture, their history, or possibly personal things.

 

It would have been like if someone who had never studied any of Earth's history had said, "Columbus discovered America and it changed the lives of the Native Americans forever". Without being from Earth or at least being familiar with who specific people were, what events took place, and when and how that took place, those words were meaningless.

 

It seemed that the aliens understood that their words weren't being comprehended by the crew of the Starship Voyager, but both sides seemed to be at a loss how to fix their dilema.

 

Finally, Tom Paris quipped, "Maybe they could show us pictures?"

 

That actually sounded like a good idea to Janeway. She addressed the aliens once again, "Could you show us some pictures of what you're trying to tell us? That might help us to understand you better."

 

The aliens seemed to like that idea. "We are receiving a transmission that is visual-only," Tuvok confirmed. At a nod from Janeway, he put it on the main viewscreen, and all eyes on the bridge looked at it.

 

It was three images, actually. One was an image of a tall man scoring a shot through a basketball hoop. Another was a snapshot from a baseball game, a pitcher poised and ready to strike at a incoming ball. The third one seemed completely unrelated to the first two, an image from an archaic computer game back on Earth called Pacman.

 

"What are they trying to tell us?" Chakotay asked softly, just as puzzled as the rest of the bridge crew. All of their brains were at work now, trying to determine what the aliens were attempting to say.

 

"The first two images are related," Tuvok chimed in, "and they represent physical activity."

 

"But what does that have to do with Pacman?" Tom Paris asked.

 

"Is that what that is?" Harry Kim frowned at the third image.

 

"Come on Harry, you need to brush up on the classics," Tom told his best friend. "What'd you think that was?"

 

"I thought it looked like a moon, or... maybe a pie with a slice taken out," Harry shrugged.

 

"I fail to understand the relevence of Pacman," Seven of Nine stated. "It is merely a puzzle-like game that requires the player to-"

 

"Hold on," Chakotay held up a hand, interrupting the ex-Borg's train of thought. "Pacman is a game," he said. "Baseball and basketball are games, too."

 

"Yes," Janeway nodded, looking at him in admiration. "That is something that all three of these images have in common." She cast a thoughtful look at the viewscreen. Then she spoke up again, addressing the aliens, "Are you trying to tell us that you want to talk to us about games?"

 

The Starfleet crew could understand enough of what the aliens were trying to say to recognize their enthusiastic reply as an affirmative.

 

Then the aliens sent another image. This one was merely a picture of the machine that sent ships far through space, and the image showed it being used no-less.

 

"I still don't understand," Janeway said to the aliens. "What do games have to do with this construct?"

 

The viewscreen went blank, and there was a moment of absolutely nothing, as though the aliens were trying to figure out how to attempt a clarification in a way the Voyager crew would understand it.

 

After a little while, another image appeared on the main viewscreen. It was a collage of pictures this time. One of them simply showed a handshake between two people. Another showed a Ferengi bartering with a Rigellion, wrapping up a deal and receiving his payment while handing a package to the other individual. Yet another image showed two cavemen, a depiction from Earth's ancient history, one handing the other a piece of fruit in exchange of a small stone knife the other had crafted with a twine and a stick.

 

"Are they saying they want to trade with us?" Chakotay said aloud after a moment.

 

"So it would seem," Tuvok said. "The handshake would also indicate the success of some kind of deal or arrangement."

 

Janeway glanced at each of them, then turned her attention back to the aliens. "Are you saying you us to trade a game for the use of your construct?" she asked them.

 

The response was a tentative affirmative.

 

"What kind of game would you be interested in?" she asked, pleased that they finally seemed to be on the right track for communication. They had a fair number of games onboard that they could replicate and give to these people, if that's what they wanted. Chess, checkers, Kadiskat, Kal-Toh, and countless others that had been introduced and developed by many different species over a long period of time.

 

Janeway's inquiry was met by another short period of silence, as though the aliens needed more time to formulate a response. Finally, they sent a new image.

 

This time, Voyager's viewscreen lit up with a single image of a black, rubber bat. It actually reminded Janeway of something she had seen when she was a little girl, back on Earth. It was a typical Halloween decoration used in some places.

 

"Obviously it's another image they got from our database," Janeway murmured to Chakotay. Then to the aliens, she said, "I don't understand. What does this mean?"

 

This time, the image remained on their screen, and the aliens responded with a phrase that translated approximately as, "Our game. Make it fly."

 

Janeway exchanged glances with her first officer, who seemed just as clueless as she did. "Are you saying that this object can be used in one of your games?" the captain asked. At the aliens' confirmation of this fact, she asked, "Then I would like to know the rules for the game. What am I supposed to do with this... bat?"

 

"Make it fly," came the approximate translation again.

 

The image on the screen changed to a picture of a replicator for a few seconds, then riverted back to the image of the black, rubber bat. "Make it fly."

 

"You want us to replicate one of those, and... make it fly," Janeway stated carefully. Somehow, she began to feel like she was speaking to a six-year-old at a Halloween party, one who wanted to be presented with a toy airplane by an older relative and then have that person take around with vroom-vroom noises.

 

But it was impossible to tell if that was the case here or not. Surely such an advanced culture would want more than a childish demonstration of such a simple object.

 

"Well, let's replicate it and see if we can figure out what they mean," Janeway said.

 

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

 

Tom Paris himself used one of the closest replicators to bring a rubber bat into existence, using the exact specifications the Captain had requested. Once it materialized, he picked it up and turned it over.

 

It was a flat thing, just under a foot wide and about five and a half inches long. It had its mouth wide open, revealing a hollow interior, and a pair of painted white eyes and a pair of triangular ears.

 

"Make it fly, eh," Tom murmured, hefting the thing just enough to give the wings a little flap. He gave a little shrug, and proceeded back toward the bridge with the thing resting in one hand.


	2. Chapter 2

When Tom Paris brought the replicated rubber bat to the bridge, the tentative progress they had made in communicating with the aliens seemed to fall back a few paces as the bridge crew once again became confused.

 

The key difference here though was that at least they had some kind of mutual basis for understanding, unlike before when they were simply struggling in the dark. In this case, both parties understood that there would be participation in a game of the aliens' choice, in exchange for Voyager to use the construct. It was simply a matter of getting the Starfleet crew to understand the nature of the game, and how to play it... and what was expected.

 

At first, it seemed that the aliens were very pleased to know that the agreed-upon item, the rubber bat, had been replicated. However, this was where things began to get confusing.

 

"What would you like us to do with the bat?" Janeway asked, trying to get some clarification.

 

"Make it fly," came the approximate translation once again.

 

"But it can't fly," Janeway told them. "It's not designed to fly."

 

The aliens agreed whole-heartedly, and seemed to indicate that was the entire point. "Make it fly," they reiterated.

 

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," Janeway said, puzzlement overtaking her mind as she glanced around the bridge, silently asking if anyone else had any thoughts or speculations. This time, everyone seemed as stumped as she felt, and Tom Paris didn't even seem to have a wisecrack ready to roll, either.

 

"Could you give us some more information?" the Captain requested of the aliens. "What do you mean, 'make it fly'?"

 

There were several moments of silence as the aliens seemed to consider this. Communication activity between the planets also seemed to increase. Perhaps they were conversing amongst themselves how to better explain what they wanted the Voyager crew to do. Or perhaps they were discussing the rules of the games, or even attempting to modify them? There was no way to tell.

 

While they awaited a direct response from those specific aliens they were in contact with, Janeway requested Harry Kim to have the computer pick up some of the transmissions being exchanged between the planets and replay them, to see if they could get any idea what was being said or discussed. However, whatever was being said amongst the aliens made less and less sense the more they tried to listen to it.

 

It just seemed very... fragmented, sporadic, and incredibly chaotic. It was as though only the aliens themselves understood what they were talking about, to the point where even incoherent sentences were incomplete and cut off-not because they were being interrupted, but because they knew that the other individuals understood what they were going to say before their sentence or phrase was complete.

 

To make matters worse, there were moments where simplistic sentences or phrases (or even just a word or two) were interjected with a complicated, intricate response that sometimes took at least an hour to complete, and then that would be followed by a hundred random responses that were each given a thousand replies, until things finally settled down to the point where another intricate response was composed, this time one that might take two hours to complete.

 

It was a wonder that even the aliens themselves could keep up with their own conversations or make any sense of any of this chatter.

 

Janeway felt like they were trying to listen to a hive-mind mentality minus the telepathy, but it seemed more like a gigantic family that knew each other so well they could metaphorically read each other's minds, because they knew what the other was going to say due to a certain phrase or cue. She had seen married couples and best friends who knew each other well enough to know what even a certain look in the eye, or crease of brow implicated.

 

This seemed sort of like that... except it had nothing to do with individuals knowing each other personally. These aliens seemed to conform themselves to a very specific way of thinking, as though everyone had immersed themselves into the same book series (possibly one that contained hundreds or thousands of titles) and knew all of it by heart, and even had inside jokes and references to boot.

 

Either way, it became obvious that, perhaps, the reason why the aliens were taking so long to respond to Janeway's question was because whatever they wanted was very complicated, and perhaps it was taking them time to figure out how to explain/describe it in a way the Voyager crew would understand.

 

Finally, the viewscreen lit up one again, and it showed an image of the rubber bat. "Make it fly," the aliens said again, but before Janeway could respond, the image on the viewscreen changed again.

 

It showed another collage of images. At the top it showed a photograph of a construction site from the twentieth century on Earth, complete with bulldozers and other machines working to move dirt, pour cement, and lift or move heavy items that would help build a frame for a large structure. The image right below it showed a picture of a replicator, with a beverage in the process of materializing in the center of it. A third image showed a group of children playing with blocks, stacking them up in different ways; although it looked like one of the youngsters had gotten careless, knocking part of it over. Below that were two final images, one of a demolition site from the twentieth century, and another of a child in school building some kind of robotic figure for a class project.

 

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Tom Paris blurted, although everyone on the bridge was probably thinking some variation of the same thing.

 

"It would seem the message is more complicated than the last group of images they sent," Tuvok stated.

 

"The last one was easy because the three pictures had to do with games, it was what they had in common," Chakotay said. "So what do these have in common?"

 

"How can we be sure that any of these pictures have anything in common this time?" Tom asked. "Maybe these guys want us to get a different meaning out of it."

 

"Such as?" Janeway asked.

 

Tom looked stumped at his own suggestion. "I have no idea," he admitted.

 

It was his wife's turn to speak up, especially since she was the chief engineer. "Well, it looks like most of them are images of people trying to build something," Torres mused aloud, after a moment of thought. "But what does that have to do with that one?" She indicated the photograph of the demolition zone. "They are clearing wrecking that old building, not building anything."

 

"If we want to look deeper into this-which I think is what our friends intend," Janeway interjected, "we could also ask ourselves, What does a replicator making a beverage have to do with any of these other images?"

 

"If we're gonna look at it like that, none of these images have anything in common," Torres said.

 

"The children building with blocks, and the student building a robot, might have something in common," Chakotay said. "Could it be... they are learning how to construct something? Our friends must have selected children for a reason."

 

"They must know we're not children," Tom quipped.

 

"No, but there is something to be said about minds who are learning what to do, and how to do it, through trial and error," Janeway mused thoughtfully, fingering her chin as she looked more carefully at the images. "You see how one of the children made a careless move, and is knocking part of the stacked up blocks over? If there is anything similar to the demolition zone, I suppose that could be it."

 

"But what does that have to do with a replicator?" Tuvok seemed to be getting intrigued by this in his own way. After all, they were following a course of logic, and part of the puzzle was figuring out what specifically the logic was in the first place.

 

"Alright, let's back up and try to figure out what these images have in common," Janeway stated, narrowing her eyes slightly as she stared at the screen some more. "We see signs of building, tearing down, and perhaps... experimentation?"

 

Janeway decided to pose a new question directly to the aliens. "Are you trying to tell us that you want us to build something, or experiment?"

 

The aliens' verbal reply was just as confusing and non-specific as ever. "Make it fly. The game. Fun, fun!"

 

The Captain forced herself to respond patiently. She rephrased her question, "You have shown us images of construction... deconstruction, and... experimentation?" A thought occurred to her. "Are you telling us there may be mistakes involved?"

 

For the first time, the response was directly coherent... mostly. "Trial and error. The game."

 

Now they seemed to be getting somewhere... hopefully. "So what you're saying is," Janeway attempted to clarify, "You want us to make the bat fly, through trial and error." She made a sweeping gesture toward the viewscreen. "How do you want us to do that? Are you saying you want us to... build a version of this bat that can fly?"

 

Things got confusing again, when the aliens seemed to answer that yes, that was exactly what they wanted... but no, it was definitely not what they wanted at all.

 

The bridge crew passed glances amongst themselves, feeling the frustration growing. It seemed like whenever they felt like they were starting to get somewhere, the entire thing would unravel and they would be even more confused than they were before.

 

The aliens seemed to sense the growing tension and puzzlement, and the image on the viewscren changed again.

 

Once again, it showed the image of the rubber bat, the same one which Janeway held in her hand. "Make it fly," the aliens stated again, and the viewscreen dissolved to be replaced with another collage of images.

 

Janeway was starting to feel like she was back in a classroom in her youth, where one of her worst teachers had presented the class with vague terms and pictures, and expected his students to learn something with little explanation. She was beginning to feel as helpless and flustered as she had when she was nine years old, in that classroom, where she was expected to learn and understand something that wasn't being clarified very well.

 

But at least this time, the images on the screen seemed to have more in common with each other. They showed a couple more replicators in the process of materializing items out of thin air, and the rest of the pictures showed various views of transporter technology in effect. Some of it showed crew members beaming from the transporter rooms on their ships, other showed starship crews materializing onto a planet's surface. And there were several other, similar images that showed the same thing, only with different species or with different items being materialized or rematerialized.

 

"What does transporter technology have to do with making a rubber bat fly?" Janeway finally asked in mild exasperation, after going in circles in her mind a few times over the entire issue and discussing it with her bridge crew.

 

The aliens seemed to sense that the Starfleet crew was getting flustered, and Tuvok ended up suggesting that they take a break. The aliens agreed that a rest period would provide a fresh start at a later time, and they seemed to indicate that, in the meantime, they would try to find a way to communicate what they wanted the crew to do later.

 

Janeway hadn't even realized how much time had passed, nor how tired or hungry she was. Indeed, she and her crew needed to get something to eat; it was nearly dinnertime and Neelix would be cooking in the mess hall anyway. After that, a short rest was in order.

 

The Captain supposed that part of her wondered if this was even worth it, yet persistence had paid off in the past, and it was way too early to give up now. Besides, her natural determination and curiosity refused to let her quit now. It wasn't even just about the promise of a big push toward home that motivated her, it was about solving the riddle, the mystery.

 

One way or another, even if it was just to find out what "Make it fly" was supposed to mean, and what those aliens wanted her and her crew to do with a rubber bat as part of a game... she was going to figure out it.

 

She would. She and her crew would work together and do it, just as they had beaten difficult odds before. The only difference in this case was that they were in no danger, there was no apparent time limit, and the aliens seemed rather patient and lenient all things considered.

 

If communication weren't so difficult, she might be tempted to ask the aliens if some of her crew could enjoy some shore leave on one of their planets while some of them continued to work with the aliens on the mysterious riddle. Perhaps she could ask them if it ended up taking more than a day, though she hoped it wouldn't take that long.


	3. Chapter 3

After a nice, hot meal and a good night's rest, the crew of Voyager was more or less prepared to go at the puzzle again. Though this time, they chose to take a little time to discuss it amongst themselves in the debriefing room before they contacted the aliens themselves.

 

"They keep telling us they want us to 'Make it fly'," Torres mused aloud, "and we're still trying to figure out what the hell they mean by that."

 

"Could it be we're taking it a little too literally?" Chakotay suggested. "You've noticed how confusing the way they use their language is. It could be that those three words mean something else entirely."

 

"But we don't even know what they mean in the first place," Tom pointed out.

 

"Logically, we know exactly what those three words mean as the Universal Translator presents them," Tuvok nitpicked, "it is the way the aliens are using them and the meaning they intend for those words that eludes us."

 

Tom exchanged a brief glance with Harry Kim and couldn't help but roll his eyes just a bit. Both of them hated it equally when Tuvok talked down to them like they were three years old.

 

"Look," Harry said, "all we know is that they apparently wanted us to replicate that rubber bat," he indicated the bat itself, which lay before all of them in the center of the table like some kind of carefully placed ornament... no matter how out-of-place it looked here. "And they keep saying they want us to 'make it fly'." He furrowed his brow as he continued to look at it. "Do they mean they want us to literally make it fly?"

 

"But what would that have to do with transporters or building things? Or demolition?" Torres asked.

 

"Perhaps they want us to transport the object to one of these places on their world?" Seven of Nine suggested.

 

At this point, Janeway was accepting literally any kind of speculation or suggestion for analysis, knowing they were all way out of their league here with these aliens. She had a feeling that these strange beings would give even some of Starfleet's top minds a run for their money.

 

"Well," Janeway replied, considering, "did our scans show any sites on their worlds where structures were being built, or torn down?" she asked.

 

"Our prelimary scans did reveal several sites on the world below us where additions were being made to their cities," Tuvok responded, "and it even looks like there is a newer city currently under construction."

 

"Could it be that they want us to beam the bat to one of those areas?" Janeway asked aloud, although part of her knew she was grasping at straws a bit.

 

"But what would that have to do with 'Make it fly'?" Tom Paris asked.

 

"If you materialize it a few feet from the ground, it'll fall," Harry Kim said.

 

"Do you have a point, Harry?" Chakotay asked him to clarify.

 

Harry opened his mouth, then closed it. "No, I don't know where I was going with that thought," he admitted. "I was just trying to think if that could be interpreted as a way to... make it fly. To beam it somewhere, in mid-air, and..." His cheeks flushed ever so slightly, and he gave a sheepish chuckle and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I know that doesn't make any sense," he said apologetically.

 

"Actually, it's our friends out there who aren't making any sense," Janeway told him gently. "That just means we're not going to make sense for a while, either, until we can make sense of this." She cast an encouraging glance at her crewmembers. "We are dealing with a species who obviously thinks very differently and is attempting to communicate in strange ways. I want each of you to suggest anything that pops into your head, no matter how strange or silly it might seem, especially since," she shrugged, "all of this already seems a bit strange and silly."

 

"Neelix, you've been awfully quiet," Chakotay addressed their Talaxian friend. "Do you have anything to add?"

 

"Yeah, Neelix, I would've thought it'd be you suggesting we beam the bat into a construction zone three feet off the ground to make it fly," Tom Paris teased lightly. Harry cast his pilot friend a glance that was partly amused, partly annoyed, slightly sheepish.

 

Neelix looked thoughtful. "I'm sorry," he told his friends, "it's just that I could swear I've seen some of these aliens someplace before, and I was trying to remember why it felt like their... eccentric communication method seemed so familiar."

 

Eyes and ears all around the table perked up at this. "You've met them before?" Torres asked, sounding more than a little ecstatic.

 

"Yes," Neelix said, as though a faraway, distant memory was becoming clearer the more he focused on it. "It was the strangest thing... It must have been about a year before Voyager was pulled to the Delta Quadrant. I think it was one of the very first ships the Caretaker captured. It was a small ship with only one person onboard, and I never saw him, but his language sounded just like the language that our friends out there speak.

 

"Of course," the Talaxian went on, "I didn't have the benefit of a Universal Translator, so that's when he started sending me pictures. He needed something to fix his ship, and I needed water. It... took us a while to work out what each of us had, what we wanted, and how we would make the trade, especially since both of us were using pictures to communicate. But eventually, we made the trade."

 

"Did you see what he looked like?" Janeway asked.

 

"Not really," Neelix shrugged. "He was wearing some kind of environmental suit. He seemed nice enough, though."

 

"Do you know what happened to him?" Harry asked.

 

Neelix could always appreciate the human desire to know what happened to a potential friend or associate, and he also liked their capacity to want to know more details before moving on with business. They were a very curious species, a very caring one, and always wanted to know more facts. He'd even found that, occasionally, some of them even enjoyed a good story. Sometimes that helped keep morale up in the mess hall.

 

"No, I don't," Neelix said. "After we made our trade, I went back to my life and he left in his ship, and I never saw him again." He sighed. "I sure hope the Kazon didn't get him."

 

"Well, considering this have this technology," Janeway made an off-hand gesture, as though indicating the construct, "there is a pretty good chance he found a way home." She sighed, and straightened. "Neelix, can you remember any details, anything about the exchange, that might help us here?"

 

"I'm sorry Captain, but no," Neelix said, regretfully. "But we weren't doing a cultural exchange either, and the only things we worked out between us was that we would like to trade, what we were trading, and when and how we were going to do it. Then we never spoke again."

 

"Someone that far away from home with a damaged ship certainly wouldn't be thinking of playing a game with a random individual," Chakotay mused aloud.

 

"Well, are we sure they want us to play a game?" Harry asked. "Maybe the word could mean something else to them."

 

Janeway's forehead crinkled with thought. "Somehow I think they are trying to be as specific as they can be with us," she said. "They did show us three pictures of three kinds of games, and seemed to agree whole-heartedly when we asked them if they wanted to play a game."

 

"So then we replicated this bat," Torres said, gesturing at the limp thing on the table, "and they keep telling us to 'make it fly', while showing us more confusing images."

 

"The only thing that makes any sense to me would be that they want us to beam it somewhere," Torres said. "I mean, they asked us to replicate the bat, and they have shown us several pictures of construction sites and transporters being used."

 

"But what does that have to do with the child building a robot in class, or the children playing with blocks?" Harry wanted to know.

 

Janeway realized that what they were attempting to do here was build a house of cards. The only problem was that they were doing it in the dark, and the slightest breeze seemed to knock down any progress they were making the moment it felt like someone was trying to build upon an idea.

 

"I think it's time we speak with our friends again," she said. "Perhaps they can give us a bit more clarification."

 

Ten minutes later, all of them were on the bridge, where the aliens on the planet below were eagerly waiting to hear from them.

 

"Make it fly?" This time the words came in the form of a question, accompanied with an image of the bat appearing on the viewscreen. Janeway had a hunch that they were asking if she and her crew had figured out what they meant by that yet.

 

Either that or they were asking if the Starfleet crew had succeeded in doing it yet. Either way, the answer was no.

 

"We still don't understand what you are asking us to do," Janeway explained patiently. She held up the rubber bat, its wings draped over both of her palms as she presented it. "You keep telling us that you want to make this bat fly. But it will not fly." She slipped her hands out from underneath it, demonstrating how it would fall to the floor once there was nothing supporting it. "It is made of rubber, it isn't a construct that is able to fly. It is not possible to make it fly."

 

She stooped down long enough to pick it up, holding it one hand now as she faced the viewscreen again. They still couldn't see who they were talking to, but their alien friends could see them. "I'm sorry, but we just don't understand what you want us to do with this," she held up the bat, pointing at it with her finger.

 

The aliens seemed to take this into consideration. It then became apparent that they knew they had caused confusion and uncertainty, and there was a burst of intense, intricate chatter that was difficult to make any heads or tails out of. What little the Voyager crew could make out of it, just barely, is that the aliens were trying to say that they were going to try and explain it more clearly and simply.

 

"Let's just try to take it slow," Janeway suggested. "Maybe instead of sending us a group of images, we could focus on one picture at a time. And we can work this out together by talking about it as we go."

 

The aliens agreed. After a moment, they began to chatter away again, though this time they did take it more slowly, presenting simpler images and simpler concepts to start out with.

 

"Bat." They presented an image of the bat in Janeway's hand. Then, as though borrowing words Janeway's own recently-used words, they began to focus on "rubber", and showed a series of images that presented different objects made of rubber. A twentieth century tire, a playground ball, a collection of rubber bands, etc.

 

"Yes, it is made of rubber," Janeway nodded. "You seem to be focusing on the fact that it is made of rubber." She had a new hunch. "Are you saying that you want us to do something with the rubber?"

 

The answer was affirmative. Then the viewscreen went blank, as though the aliens weren't sure how to continue and they didn't want to risk confusing things again with something that was too off-track or complicated.

 

It seemed that the aliens had also decided it might be easier if they give the Voyager crew a chance to speak, ask questions, and try to come to their own conclusions before bombarding them with more.

 

"Perhaps they want us to do something regarding the molcear structure of the rubber?" Tuvok suggested.

 

"That might explain what transporter technology has to do with building or deconstructing," Chakotay said.

 

"But why would they have us replicate this bat and ask us to make it fly?" Janeway frowned.

 

The viewscreen lit up again with a new image. It showed a picture of a bird in flight. "Fly," the aliens said.

 

After a moment, the image switched back to that of the rubber bat in Janeway's hand. "Cannot fly, yes?"

 

"Yes, that is right," Janeway answered, still trying to follow whatever their train of thought or logic was here.

 

Then the image on the screen changed to that of a chunk of raw ore that had been mined from an asteroid field. It looked like durianium, a material that was often used in starship hulls. "Cannot fly, yes?" the aliens said again.

 

The viewscreen flicked on and off, showing a picture of Voyager itself. "Can fly."

 

Then the aliens repeated the example in a different way. They showed an image of raw steel. "Can't fly." Then they showed an image of a twentieth century airplane. "Can fly."

 

"Are you saying that you want us to use rubber to construct something that can fly?" Janeway asked.

 

The aliens answered that that was not what they were asking.

 

Janeway's years of diplomatic experience prevented her from blowing out a frustrated breath.

 

The image on the viewscreen changed again, once again showing the image of the rubber bat. "Make it fly."

 

"Perhaps they want us to alter this specific bat itself somehow," Seven of Nine suggested. "They may be trying to tell us how they want us to do it." Her expression was annoyed and her tone held an edge, and she had already voiced several times how she felt this entire excersize was a frivilous waste of time. Yet she understood that cooperation with other species' and their customs was the way to do things on a Starfleet vessel.

 

Janeway addressed the aliens again. "Are you telling us that you want us to take this bat," she held it up and pointed at it, "and alter its moleclear structure to change it into something that can fly?"

 

The aliens responded with a tentative affirmative.

 

"Why?" The captain just couldn't help herself.

 

"Game. Enjoyment. Fun."

 

"Are you saying that you do this sort of thing yourselves?" Janeway asked, starting to feel more curious about their habits and customs now that they really seemed to be getting somewhere. Her aggravation and annoyance were already starting to disappate.

 

Another series of images appeared on the screen, one of the Pilgrims and Indians enjoying the first Thanksgiving dinner together, another of an Irish festival with dancing and drinking, another showing a family watching a holovid together, and one final one that showed a group of people sitting around a table, playing Poker.

 

"Traditional. Social." The aliens seemed to be saying in their barely comprehensible chatter. "Together. Fun."

 

"I think I'm starting to understand," Janeway said softly. "You're saying that this is part of what you do to have fun with other people."

 

The aliens responded an affirmative.

 

"So, you want us to find a way to make this bat fly, by... reconstructing it?" Janeway asked.

 

Unfortunately, this was where they hit another bout of confusion, and another communication block. The aliens seemed to indicate that the game's rules required them to do this in a very specific way, or it would be unacceptible. And while it seemed that they had managed to communicate the basics of what they wanted to happen, they were still struggling to communicate the finer, specific details, and how exactly it was supposed to happen.

 

In a way, Janeway began to feel like she was trying to learn how to construct a Starfleet shuttle from a Japanese teacher without the aid of a Universal Translator. There were some concepts that were too complicated to discuss or learn without a good communication method, and some decent study books and references.

 

Finally, both sides agreed it was time to take another break for a little while. They would approach the puzzle again later.


	4. Chapter 4

Once again, the bridge crew was more or less ready for another brain-bending day of trying to figure out what they were being asked to do with a simple rubber bat.

 

The first image that appeared on the viewscreen today was that of a replicator, followed by an image of a transporter.

 

"We already replicated the bat," Janeway said, once again holding it up. "Are you saying you want us to transport it somewhere?"

 

The aliens responded that that wasn't what they were trying to say. They sent another image to the viewscreen, this time showing a picture of a spacedock being constructed. Next, they showed another image of the same spacedock, with a bit more progress made. They continued to show a series of these images, showing the documented progress of the enormous structure as it was coming together over a period of months.

 

"Progress, shown. Shared." The aliens sent an image of the Pilgrims and Indians sharing the first Thanksgiving dinner together again. "Game. Progress shown. Shared. Social. Together."

 

Somehow, even Janeway's somewhat muddled, flustered mind managed to make sense of that. "You're saying that part of the game, for you, is for us to document the progress when we alter the rubber bat so that it can fly," she inquired, once again holding it up.

 

The aliens responded rather happily that yes, that was very, very much the case.

 

"Well, if we can figure out how you want this done and what we are doing specifically, we could give you a live feed," Janeway offered. The aliens seemed to like that idea very much.

 

After a couple of hours of very careful communication, the Voyager crew felt that they had finally gotten a good grip on just what the aliens were trying to tell them. It was sketchy, vague in places, and the crew had to continuously keep filling in gaps, but they felt they finally understood.

 

Basically, the aliens were a very curious species in their own way, and not only did they love to chatter amongst themselves, they apparently had very wild imaginations. In a way, their brains apparently worked differently than that of the Voyager crew, as they could do whatever they needed to do to routinely maintain their equipment and their worlds on a daily basis. However, a large portion of their collective mind was constantly engaged in something akin to daydreaming and talking aloud, yet it was a bit different than that. It was more like... coming up with questions, even some of the most ridiculous questions, and fantasizing about them to the point where they would challenge the physical laws of the universe.

 

For example, everyone knew that gravity had a natural pull that held things against planets, or other large bodies in space. This was raw, cold fact, something which everyone could agree had to be accepted. Not to accept them would be insane, and it would ignore reality. Therefore, anyone who worked with space ships and any orbital stations, or even the world engines that prevented their planets from getting too close to the binary stars, understood the importance of this fact. One couldn't deny the reality for fear of something going horribly wrong with everything that they had to maintain very carefully, with their own trained expertise.

 

However, that didn't mean there wasn't room for the part of their brains that enjoyed chattering, socializing and daydreaming to do just that. While their physical selves, and the automatic part of their minds, were constantly busy doing whatever it was they needed to do day by day to maintain their functioning society, part of their minds were off somewhere else. In a way, the design and structure of their brains was a real treat, because unlike most other species it was like they could constantly take vacations and leaps from reality in their own minds while still functioning in reality and being aware of the reality around them.

 

Therefore, they had all the time in the universe to ask the most ridiculous questions, contemplate them, and analyze them aloud. On the subject of gravity, in continuing that example, they could ask any question they wanted. What if gravity didn't exist? What if anyone on any of their worlds wanted to go outside one day, spread their arms, kick off of the planet's surface and simply soar into space?

 

Of course, this line of daydreamy thought ignored a lot of facts, such as how that would never happen without a personal jetpack or unless the individual had somehow sprouted very powerful wings. And that didn't address the question of how one would survive the vacuum of space even if they did manage to "kick off" the planet into space.

 

But apparently, that wasn't the point in question, because the aliens knew full well what the reality was and what the facts were. Therefore, what they enjoyed doing most was taking these ridiculous kinds of questions or scenerios, and through mere chatter and fantasizing, they did their best to try and figure out how to work within the confines of reality, and the physical laws, to make something silly or ridiculous work... safely. And when it came to their games, they often found reality to be an annoying and frustrating thing, as one could never force reality to shape to one's own will. One simply had to make adjustments and get the closest thing they could to their thought, mental image, fantasy or idea, especially during times when reality just would not cooperate.

 

That brought the subject back to the rubber bat, and "make it fly". Apparently, when the aliens had copied data from Voyager's computer, they had discussed a lot of the things they had seen. When they learned of the Starfleet crew's desire to use their technology to get closer to home, they chose to invite Voyager to participate in a game.

 

Therefore, the aliens presented a concept. It was apparently one of the most popular of the silly questions that popped up amongst them when they had considered what they were going to ask the Voyager crew to do. They liked the image of the rubber bat, and they had even replicated several thousand of them on one of their planets, because some of their people wanted rubber bats of their own.

 

Then came the question, "Was it possible to make a rubber bat fly?" As the bat existed in its current form, no, it was not possible for it to fly. It was made of an inanimate material, it was not made of any kind of living tissue, and it did not have any motor abilities built into it. It was just a black-colored, rubber bat that had floppy wings.

 

In the privacy of one's own imagination, it was very possible to entertain thoughts and notions of a rubber bat flying. Children and adults alike could hold the item and gently move it up and down to make the wings flap, and entertain mental fantasies of it flying through the room.

 

But... what would be required, to actually make it fly, on its own? In order to fulfill a fantasy, to play their game, and to enjoy participating with the Voyager crew in a game... they simply wanted to see the Voyager crew make it fly. And they wanted to see a live transmission of the procress as the project progressed, and they wanted to be spoken to about how it was working and what steps were being taken, plus how they were being taken.

 

Now that the Voyager crew finally understood what they were being asked, and how the aliens wanted it to be performed and documented as part of a social activity, now... the only matter left was to determine how exactly they were going to do it.

 

Would it even be possible?

 

That was when the crew on Voyager requested another recess. They had to get together in the debriefing room to discuss how they could achieve this, what would be involved, and so forth.


End file.
